- Candling, and climbing slowly at the beginning.
- A single new, larger kiln shelf changed the path of the flame.
- 2.25 pounds soda ash, 2.75 pounds of baking soda, 4 pounds of whiting, and 1/2 a pound of salt. I think this last accounts for the juiciness and the honey-fied tones.
Hi - really enjoy your pots - lovely pots and lots of good info. In reading some of your past posts - in Dec 1st - Holly Shatter you mention some of your pots made from cone 10 BMix shattering.
ReplyDeleteWe just unloaded a cone 10 gas kiln and a lot of the pots that were made from Bmix - the larger ones cracked - were sort of torn apart. We thought it was because we had to abort the the firing the day before around 2000 as there was a power failure and then start up again the next day. The kiln was at 800 the next morning which is just about 100 degree higher that normal after a overnight candleling and so we fired the way we normaly do though the kiln climbed a bit faster - so finished the firing about 2 hours sooner. So I think it was too quick a rise in temp through quartz inversion - as the cracks, tears were mostly on the edges that overhung inot the bagwall space.Just wondering if you have had any more trouble with it. I love it - its so great to throw with.
You throw whiting into the kiln when you throw the soda and salt? I've never heard of that. What does it do?
ReplyDeleteI can only tell you observationally, not chemically, what the whiting does: without it, the soda glaze seems less evenly distributed, and a whole bunch of it ends up on the floor of the burner channel. Which is not a good place for it, not only because it isn't doing any good, but because eventually it will eat away at the brick. I also periodically clean out the burner channel, and pour a fireclay/ alumina slip over the floor, to protect the brick. I am in no hurry to have to rebuild this kiln!
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